Amazon.co.uk Review
The sort of action thriller for which the phrase "high octane" could have been conceived, Swordfish stars John Travolta as Gabriel Shear, an enigmatic criminal operator who is as admired as he is feared. Using sexy sidekick Ginger (Halle Berry) as bait, he pressgangs Stanley Jobson, (Hugh Jackman) the world's greatest computer hacker, into helping him relieve the world banking system of a few billion dollars to finance his own enterprises. Jackman agrees, on the promise that Travolta will help him regain custody of his daughter.
The numerous explosions and set-piece exchanges of high calibre gunfire tend at times to blowholes in the narrative fabric and sense of Swordfish, a film that nonetheless engages through its extravagant silliness. Vinnie Jones is under-used as a fearsome minder, a close-up of Halle Berry's breasts isn't entirely integral to the plotline, while Travolta enjoys himself as the dapper ringmaster of this orgy of techno-chaos, especially in scenes in which he blasts away a brace of pursuing assassins with improbable aplomb and during his opening, Tarantino-esque monologue. By the end, he has shown himself in his apparently true colours in such a way that events of September 11, 2001--although made prior to them--lent the film an eerie sense of prescience. --David Stubbs
Customer Reviews:
Total pap - steer clear.......2008-02-07
I was thinking how I might best deliver the vitriol and contempt I hold for this film. Fortunately the previous reviewer has provided me with so many points which aren't true that I think I'll just address them one by one and save myself having to think about review structure or stylistics.
2) Travolta is neither good nor bad but shouldn't have been in this film at all - there's no particularly solid acting on his part and his lines contain nothing you'll remember after watching.
3) Halle Berry is nauseous and needless, there only as totty. The scene with her in her underwear where she grabs the gun is just painful. Is there any man on the planet who finds the combination of scantily-clad women with guns enticing? Berry can act but her tired femme-fatale role here smothers her and gives her no room to - the part is throw-away.
4) Cheadle - he's alright. Standard pissed-off-detective-in-a-brown-suit jobbie. Unfortunately he's asked to do one of the film's silliest scenes (and there's a few) where he and his colleagues decided to chase Jackman down a huge steep hill, a lengthy plunge which would either end in death or at least paralysis. All for the crime of... breaking parole terms. Realistic or what?
5) Hugh Jackman is probably the least likely programmer in the world. Does anyone know a programmer who looks like that? They could at least have got someone who could type fast - the frequent close-up shots of him hammering away on keyboards look like they didn't even bother to train him up - he just bashes away and you can tell he types one finger at a time really. Remember Boris from Golden Eye? THERE'S someone who can play a hacker. Jackman instead reminds me of Ted Striker from Airplane - mock serious, not actually serious.
8) Not formulaic? It couldn't be more so. The plot is dull and, but for a few exceptions, predictable. The action is both unlikely (Travolta single handedly taking out 6 FBI 4*4s with his gun; strange how the cops never think to stop following if he's that good a shot or perhaps get out and shoot) and for action's sake.
9) Vinnie. What WERE you thinking? You play the type of Brit that Americans think roams London. His lines, clearly written by an American who thinks he's well up on British gangster speak, are badly delivered and make you wonder where that suave, cool but frightening figure from Lock Stock and Snatch has gone.
And there's other niggly things, most of which relating to the fact that, it would seem, they didn't actually hire any people with knowledge of computers or hacking to advise on the film.
What is it with computers in Hollywood films using non-existent operating systems? All these bank authentication systems in films use wonderfully animated front-ends and flash "access denied!" in big red letters. Someone should point out to them that Linux is free license.
Travolta's line "the best hackers in the world can do this in 60 minutes - I need someone who can do it in 60 seconds", unwisely chosen for the trailer, is also naff. As a programmer myself I can say that if something takes 60 minutes to program then that's because there's a lot to set up. Scripts, modules, server config - etc. The idea you could do it in 60 seconds or even 10 minutes is therefore rubbish. Sorry if I'm being geeky but, hey, is it a serious film about hacking or not?
Jackman, after hacking something, is asked by starry-eyed onlookers "how DID you do that??", to which he painfully replies "I don't know - I just see the code in my head". This isn't music, guys, or impressionist painting - this is coding (the other half of your brain). You don't see code - it's a matter of logic, algebra and, often, trial and error.
All in all, give it a miss, unless you want a no-brainer with some explosions.
Tricksy wellmade thriller.......2008-01-25
Possibly the best first 8 minutes I've seen in a long while kick this off. The club scene, wrong but weirdly sexy.
Other reviews have told you the outline so as with many of my reviews I won't bother!
You will need to pay attention to the plot to or you will end up wondering what the hell is going on. Yes the hacking is very movie style but it keeps the action skipping along. The club scene, wrong but weirdly sexy.
Jackman, Berry and Cheadle handle themselves very well.
I was less convinced with Travolta. It's so hard to play bad guys with charm and not seem like you're overplaying it..so it loses a star.
You may like it if you enjoyed Hackers and felt it needed prettier people and more guns or enjoyed the look of Gone in 60 Seconds but felt it needed an actual story.
Brilliant Film.......2007-12-08
Hugh Jackman is just georgous in this film...this is definately one of his best films.
Travolta is a egomanic who wants to rid the world of terrorists, but doing things the hard way. He employs Jackman a reformed computer hacker to hack into the worlds wealth to finance his reign of terror.
Music throughout is by Paul Oakenfold and is great. Halle Berry is great in this film and it does have an interesting twist at the end..
Would really recommend this film to buy as you will watch it again.
Really good film to watch.
Love a good film like this........2007-07-10
Thought this film was really great. I really enjoyed it as it was intense at times and throughout it, this happens very rarely to me i have to be honest, I was wanting to watch it all the way to the end.
The baddies are the goodies in this film.......2007-07-01
Not a great movie but has enough to entertain. That said, there were some decent ideas behind the silly stuff, (unneeded and poorly produced fluff such as:bad explosion scenes, still more of a reach with ideas which would not be practical in furthering the ideas and goals of the primary character, John Travolta. So while the movie really has too many poorly produced, unbelievable, and unnecessary scenes, which seem out of place at times, the primary objective of the main character, is logical.
The idea behind not taking any crap from terrorists in order to rid the world of them is on it's own a good idea. Fight a hijacked plane by taking out an airport. Kill American civilians, we will use tactical nukes. This particular theme really does make sense. How to fight the war on terror? According to John Travolta, beat the living daylights out of them, BIG TIME. Recall history for a moment. When the small A bombs used to devastate Nagasaki and Hiroshima in WW 2 produced a surrender immediately, we see today, the very real possibility of the same thing happening. Travolta needs money to fight on the right side. So, he gets it by hacking his way in to the billions he needs. In steps Hugh Jackman, one of, if not, the worlds best Hacker.. The money that Travolta, (the Brain behind the process) wants, is lying dormant from a fund that was simply gathering nothing but a great amount of interest. Enough interest in 15 years to catch Travolta's eye. Jackman is forcibly coerced to hack, even though he has been caught and is followed by the FBI. Jackman doesn't want the job, he does want his daughter who lives with the Mother. We find Jackman as a confused yet brilliant at what he does.best, hack into the most secure institutions. In this case it's the Dept of Defense. Or so it would seem. That really doesn't matter too much, suffice to say Jackman and his genius are needed to get the funds produced in the interest baring account which after after 15 years totals $9 Billion. So the war on terror being fought by Travolta's ideals and his genius at getting the money needed to fight is really worth some thought. To add to that, we are now so worried about our own individual safety when it comes to buying something on the Internet or even giving a credit card to a local merchant. This is another worthwhile premise that is brought to the forefront as well as some other very worthy themes that actually confront us even more today than when this film was done, prey 9/11.
Swordfish could have been much better as Halle Berry and most other characters really seem to be there to fill in with the usual sex and violence. Actually, when referring to a headliner like Berry, we might expect more, but it's not to be. Silly looking crash scenes, Buses taken airborne, inexplicable reasons for what Travolta terms, "misdirection" just serve to confuse or at best let the viewer think for themselves. Well, whenever a movie like this one is saying ' just what is misdirection and what is real in order to render a better plot, it's OK. However, we are simply left wondering about this person or that incident. These "misdirection's" obviously play a key role in how Travolta gets away with what he does, but the confusion, the wherefore, the how, why and when are never introduced. They simply confuse an already disjointed picture. Many times the viewer will most definitely say, " what is that, or who is that? What are they doing there, Aren't they supposed to be here? It goes on that way. So be it.
Presume for a moment that this film took itself seriously. Great attention paid to detail (not available in present state), much more attention paid to computers and hacking, identity theft, divorce and custody, the war on terrorism and how to fight it and more. Swordfish does cover these themes. The subject matter, the themes suggested above, if taken much more seriously and then turned out by some top writing, well, this movie really could have been top notch. Sorry to say however, this edition of Swordfish gives us very little if any of these very important yet extremely entertaining issues.
DVD:
- Swordfish [HD DVD] [2001]
- TAXI (ENGLISH DUBBED + SUBTITLED) [1998]
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines [HD DVD] [2003] [US Import]
- Terminator 3 - Rise Of The Machines [UMD Mini for PSP] [2003]
- The Baron - The Complete Series
- The Big Boss - 2 Disc Platinum Edition [1971]
- The Boondock Saints [1999]
- The Delta Force [1986]
- The Duel At Silver Creek [1952]
- The Eagle Has Landed (Special Edition) [1977]
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